VN Ren'Py Radiant [v0.7.1] [RK Studios]

[PaxHadrian17]

This is another huge problem for a patron who elects to be charged by Patreon only for an update. ALL updates are to be considered as equal, but a beta/bug-fix is something else again.
I followed another game thread with something similar to what appears to be happening with Radiant. The supporters were getting too restless so those Devs also released a semi-finished "beta". Seven (!!) bug-fix mini-updates later, the Devs decided to do a proper fix with the NEXT full update.
Fun times ahead. Not. But I will find it interesting. Chaos is a super-stimulaing fetish...

Why are you bringing up the pay for each update option on this thread? I've checked and Radiant doesn't have that option for any tier for either Patreon or SS. There are creators who do this but the creators of Radiant are not among them.

If they publish a Beta that is still a quality rev, then each supporter gets to choose and loses nothing in the choice - play the Beta or wait for the completed version. Why wouldn't a creator give their supporters that choice? I'm happy to support Radiant and I'm looking forward to the next rev - whether I get a Beta first and the final second or I get the final first and then a minor patch that corrects the handful of small issues that usually come to light with each full release a week or two after that rev is released.

 

[White Lamp]

I don't get how projects like this or milfy city can get thousands on Patreon, yet completed projects like Mist or Deliverance never get this much attention.

I think MC was one of the earliest AVN. Radiant is the probably the earliest super duper high quality render games that I’ve played. Still holds true to this day.

seems like timing is key.

 

[Bombmaster]

I don't get how projects like this or milfy city can get thousands on Patreon, yet completed projects like Mist or Deliverance never get this much attention.

strong renders and fucking hot fetish, Influenced lots of games with similar structure thrive->, "Mom" hot - middle sis and younger sis in the same house.
PORN get lots of backers. Is like renders/porn# 1, story# 2, rest #3.

 

[BrockLanders]

strong renders and fucking hot fetish, Influenced lots of games with similar structure thrive->, "Mom" hot - middle sis and younger sis in the same house.
PORN get lots of backers. Is like renders/porn# 1, story# 2, rest #3.

I'd rather support a story-first game that makes strides towards completion than good-looking vaporware with a thread run by a developer that deletes any mention of another game as "off-topic". At least the ones we're talking about are FINISHED, right?

 

[virtuvoid]

strong renders and fucking hot fetish, Influenced lots of games with similar structure thrive->, "Mom" hot - middle sis and younger sis in the same house.
PORN get lots of backers. Is like renders/porn# 1, story# 2, rest #3.

I'd have it : renders #1 ; h-scene animations #2 ; comedy as #3 ; story as #4 if the situation presented is interesting, if not the story is pish.

 

[armond]

I'd have it : renders #1 ; h-scene animations #2 ; comedy as #3 ; story as #4 if the situation presented is interesting, if not the story is pish.

I agree with your list. I find over time the "story" becomes the main focus because it requires the least effort, and sadly the other areas reflect that level of effort as a result.

 

[virtuvoid]

I agree with your list. I find over time the "story" becomes the main focus because it requires the least effort, and sadly the other areas reflect that level of effort as a result.

I think many players may be self-delusional. A player may say, " I'm here for the story, not the porn." Sure, dude, whatever. There are plenty of places with stories with no porn.
Basically, the renders ARE the story...

 

[PaxHadrian17]

This is a Visual novel - so the renders and animations tell the story (and yes - audio can be a powerful extra that helps).

Radiant started out as a great story, especially the opening scenes!

The dance and how the MC met Gracie, all the way through getting caught by her dad and fleeing the scene, only to have an accident that robbed him of his parents and totally changed his life.

I still think Radiant is a great story, even if there are a few bumps that I think are unnecessary - like the nasty police officer who has decided to make his dislike of the MC something personal.

There are parts of the story that, given the limited content we have today, still feel rough.

We are still early in the story so there is plenty of room for the world-building that can provide the backstory to better appreciate how some of the apparently disparate story elements fit.

I think the visuals are great! I also think the audio is very good.

Will it hold up through time or get even better? I don't know, but I'm happy to stick around and find out.

Am I looking forward to two of the 3 story paths (romance and lust) - yes, and I'm here because this is an Adult visual novel, not a Disney fairy tale.

So - Cheers to Radiant!

 

[lee22br]

This game is really good. The prolog is great. The script is so intense. Thanks for sharing.

 

[CHAD-MAN]

Can't believe Dammed will release something in the deadline as he promised. Yeah, I know its an "alpha" and its going to be very rough, but I legit - honestly expected it to come out like on late April or something.

My worries:
- Either, it's going to be a build so bad Dammed will be like "told you so, quality takes time" or some bs excuse to get back to the 14 months time window.
- Or the "part 2" of this chapter is going to take another +8 months to cook or more, meaning instead of 14 months span for a single update, we get like 16 months but in two parts.
- Or both...
- Plus, I expect this to be half-unplayable, rilled with bugs and issues, and probably cleared in like 30 minutes.

If we're unlucky? It's all of the above. Considering everything that this dev put us through, chances are very high.
If we're lucky? There's no filler at the very least and its all about the triplets and not the rest of the worthless cast.

 

[dolfe67]

For the ones who don't follow their patreon:

You must be registered to see the links

Hey all, as you can see we're a little down to the wire here. February's the short month, and we've only got one more day until it's over!

I'll cut to the chase and tell you all what's up: sometime in the next couple of days I'll be releasing Chapter 5 in alpha. Since we're "relatively on-schedule" with this one, the early-access period of 7 days will be followed.

As you can all see with the progress tracker, we're still a few scenes behind... there was a few hiccups.... long story short that's my own fault, so in order to honor my promise of an end-of February release: the alpha, released sometime in the next day or so, will be missing a few scenes which will be added/finished by the time early-access is over.

So good news and bad news:

Good news first, CH5 is indeed being released in alpha in a day or so. We're following the tiered early-access model here on Patreon.

Bad news, the alpha is a little barebones (at least by Radiant's standards)-- the last few scenes of the chapter aren't quite ready for consumption just yet, so if you want to play the full chapter all at once/don't want the stunted version, I recommend waiting until the game's in beta, or for the best possible experience: the full launch. Our plan is to get the last few scenes done before the full release here on Patreon.

Keep in mind that your time-zone will affect when you see the alpha posted here to Patreon, it might be a day or two into March when it's posted. Regardless of all of the above, I am beyond excited for you guys to play this chapter. I hope all of you enjoy playing/reading it as much as I enjoyed making it and I'm super excited for the feedback & discussion about it.

I've rambled on long enough, I need to get back to it. Love you guys!

SirD.

P.S. February wallpapers incoming.

 

[virtuvoid]

Can't believe Dammed will release something in the deadline as he promised. Yeah, I know its an "alpha" and its going to be very rough, but I legit - honestly expected it to come out like on late April or something.

My worries:
- Either, it's going to be a build so bad Dammed will be like "told you so, quality takes time" or some bs excuse to get back to the 14 months time window.
- Or the "part 2" of this chapter is going to take another +8 months to cook or more, meaning instead of 14 months span for a single update, we get like 16 months but in two parts.
- Or both...
- Plus, I expect this to be half-unplayable, rilled with bugs and issues, and probably cleared in like 30 minutes.

If we're unlucky? It's all of the above. Considering everything that this dev put us through, chances are very high.
If we're lucky? There's no filler at the very least and its all about the triplets and not the rest of the worthless cast.

Hey! Jade for sure, Alita maybe, are worthy LIs. My fav is still Allison, though.
As for the rest of your post : that seems to be an accurate summation.

 

[Dogorti]

Can't believe Dammed will release something in the deadline as he promised. Yeah, I know its an "alpha" and its going to be very rough, but I legit - honestly expected it to come out like on late April or something.

My worries:
- Either, it's going to be a build so bad Dammed will be like "told you so, quality takes time" or some bs excuse to get back to the 14 months time window.
- Or the "part 2" of this chapter is going to take another +8 months to cook or more, meaning instead of 14 months span for a single update, we get like 16 months but in two parts.
- Or both...
- Plus, I expect this to be half-unplayable, rilled with bugs and issues, and probably cleared in like 30 minutes.

If we're unlucky? It's all of the above. Considering everything that this dev put us through, chances are very high.
If we're lucky? There's no filler at the very least and its all about the triplets and not the rest of the worthless cast.

the guy at least kept his promise, it's a step in the right direction to regain trust

 

[PaxHadrian17]

It's also better communication, including the graphic for completed scenes, than we had for any prior update. That is progress in the right direction. I'm looking forward to playing the Alpha and seeing how well everything fits into the existing story. It's time for more fun with the triplets!

 

[micmitja]

good for dev to put something out, tho based devs words its only 2/3rd of update and it is alpha

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[Filipis]

It's also better communication, including the graphic for completed scenes, than we had for any prior update. That is progress in the right direction. I'm looking forward to playing the Alpha and seeing how well everything fits into the existing story. It's time for more fun with the triplets!

The real question is: just how barebones is it? And more importantly, how long until the last third is completed? A week? Several weeks? A month? Several months?

If the finished chapter only gets released a month/two later, then just adjust the development pipeline by shortening the chapters to increase release cadence - more frequent smaller chapters is better than waiting 6+ months for the next chapter. There exists a point in time where you hit diminishing returns on time spent on chapter = time played of chapter.

 

[PaxHadrian17]

Based on the graphic, there are 14 completed scenes.

If the graphic is accurate, that is not bare bones to me.

We'll know more once the Alpha is released.

Believe me - there are those who will try to play the entire rev, knowing that it is not complete yet, and then bad mouth the creators because it is not complete. It's like being told not to tow an RV with a compact car and when the compact car driver does this anyway and his car breaks, he has to complain about just how bad that compact car is.

 

[virtuvoid]

The real question is: just how barebones is it? And more importantly, how long until the last third is completed? A week? Several weeks? A month? Several months?

If the finished chapter only gets released a month/two later, then just adjust the development pipeline by shortening the chapters to increase release cadence - more frequent smaller chapters is better than waiting 6+ months for the next chapter. There exists a point in time where you hit diminishing returns on time spent on chapter = time played of chapter.

It seems to me that the idea for a piece-meal update schedule is to try to maintain, as best is possible, a Dev connection to Patreon.
When I first came to this site, the usual VN schedule was monthly. That dovetailed perfectly with the monthly Patreon fee for the support of a creator. Since then, the average update schedule is now at least 6 months (there are still financial/political bloggers and sex workers who provide monthly content).
Devs have tried to make up this slack by providing lots of non-canon content. Obviously, this takes time away from actual work on the VN. Also, since late 2017, Patreon has adopted a censorship policy which accounts for all the "landlady" and "ward" (hello Radiant !) stuff. Creating an additional narrative to please this Patreon policy also takes time away from VN creation.
Devs must love the financial rewards to being connected to Patreon so much as to put up with all this guff. But more and more supporters seem to be thinking they are the ones getting an increasingly bad deal. Only a relatively large group of people dropping/downgrading their support would prompt Devs to react.
Although I believe dropping Patreon by our community is the best way forward, at least doing piece-meal updates is a major improvement over the present update schedule.

 

[White Lamp]

Before we give props to the developer I need to see the update first.. based on previous experience with the guy I have serious doubt it’ll be out today.

 

[PaxHadrian17]

It seems to me that the idea for a piece-meal update schedule is to try to maintain, as best is possible, a Dev connection to Patreon.
When I first came to this site, the usual VN schedule was monthly. That dovetailed perfectly with the monthly Patreon fee for the support of a creator. Since then, the average update schedule is now at least 6 months (there are still financial/political bloggers and sex workers who provide monthly content).
Devs have tried to make up this slack by providing lots of non-canon content. Obviously, this takes time away from actual work on the VN. Also, since late 2017, Patreon has adopted a censorship policy which accounts for all the "landlady" and "ward" (hello Radiant !) stuff. Creating an additional narrative to please this Patreon policy also takes time away from VN creation.
Devs must love the financial rewards to being connected to Patreon so much as to put up with all this guff. But more and more supporters seem to be thinking they are the ones getting an increasingly bad deal. Only a relatively large group of people dropping/downgrading their support would prompt Devs to react.
Although I believe dropping Patreon by our community is the best way forward, at least doing piece-meal updates is a major improvement over the present update schedule.

I actually support Radiant vis SubscribeStar.

They don't have the 'landlady/tenant' restrictions that Patreon has but I've heard that they charge a higher fee than Patreon.

I have not used either personally, so I don't know what the fee difference is.